Darfur Bleeds

Having dabbled in the world of multimedia, I have just been pointed to an amazing organization called Witness. Their mission is to use video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. Personally, video advocacy has been something I have wanted to invest in for a long time, but lacked the tools to do so. In this age of globalization and within our generation that is so technology-oriented, I believe this is a very efficient way of reaching people who would never pick up a book about genocide. This realm of advocacy has so far been very limited, but that is why Witness is so great. The Hub, which is within Witness, is the first global platform that is using media to inspire action. This is huge. Here is one of the videos, Darfur Bleeds, that I think is worth seeing because it gives names of the victims of an attack on Jawara. Putting names to the bodies is the first step in restoring their personal humanity.

Peace,

Rachel

Weekly News Brief June 22-28

*Late, but FYI.

Peacekeeping:

Sudan-

Although the United Nations recently celebrated 60 years of Peacekeeping, the critics of the missions have not backed down. On Tuesday the Security Council asked the United Nations to investigate the Peacekeeper’s involvement in the controversial area of Abyei, in which violence erupted on May 20th, displacing an estimated 50,000 Sudanese. UN envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson accused the United Nations Mission in Sudan(UNMIS) of hiding during the violence rather then protecting civilians and fulfilling their mandate. The accusation was quickly rejected, and although the situation is still unstable, measures are being taken to ensure that tensions do not escalate in Abyei.

Six months have passed since the beginning of the United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur(UNAMID), and hopes are dimming that this mission, intended to be the largest peacekeeping mission to date, will succeed. At full deployment, there are supposed to be 26,000 troops on the ground in Darfur, when in reality, only about 9,000 have been deployed. One of the hindrances to full-deployment is the ongoing violence in the region. In a briefing with the Security Council, Jan Eliasson, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur, stated that without Sudanese cooperation, political will, and a committment to implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, we will not make progress. Despite the international community’s efforts or failures, the Sudanese must desire to solve their own problems and have peace within their country.

Zimbabwe–

After tensions flared between President Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai before the upcoming run-off elections, Tsvangirai decided to drop out of the elections. Although many, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon were upset by the news, all agree that the precaution was understandable. Although criticism of Mugabe and the sham election have been commonplace this week, Mugabe is still calling for elections, even though he is now the only candidate.

Tsvangirai has now called for UN peacekeepers to enter Zimbabwe, in the hopes of settling political unrest. He was cited in the Guardian as the author of an op-ed piece claiming that intervention by the UN was the only way to end the injustice in Zimbabwe. Soon after the piece was published, Tsvangirai was quoted denying the authorship of the op-ed.

International Criminal Court:

At the beginning of the week, President Bashir of Sudan vowed to the ICC, “I swear to God, I swear to God, I swear to God, we will not hand over any Sudanese to the International Court.” The arrest warrants for Haroun and Kushayb were issued a year ago, but Bashir has continuously rejected handing over the two leaders. ICC prosecutor OCampo is due to issue more indictments of high-level officials in the Khartoum government sometime next month. The anticipation of further indictments prompted Bashir to contemplate handing over the two suspects, “as a protection from further indictments,” said a senior Sudanese official. Nothing has come of this yet, but with the indictments approaching, there is controversial speculation that OCampo will indict President Bashir.

Former US Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios recently attended a forum on Sudan at the U.S. Institute for Peace, where he made statements warning the consequences of indicting further senior-level officials, as well as President Bashir. Natsios spoke of his meeting with ICC prosecuter Luis-Moreno Ocampo, in which he failed to convince Ocampo that justice was a threat to peace in Darfur. There has been others who have spoken up on the subject, including co-authors of Darfur: A New History of a Long War, Julie Flint and Alex De Waal. Ocampo’s indictments should be expected within the next few weeks.

Genocide Doesn’t Take A Summer Vacaction.

STAND Nat’l has a great new website now, everyone should check it out. It’s easy to use and very helpful.

Want to support one of our own?

“Adam Sterling, Director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force at the Genocide Intervention Network, is one of nine nominees for the Do Something Award, to be presented at the Teen Choice Awards by Hannah Montana on August 4th. Adam has been nominated for founding the Sudan divestment movement while in college at UCLA. Through Adam’s work, at least 25 states, 19 major U.S. cities, and 59 universities have adopted policies restricting their Sudan investments.”

Go online and support Adam!
Here is a Q&A with Adam, speaking about the recently released Darfur Now.
Adam and Darfur Now

In other news:

The STAND Summer Action Pack is here! The summer is a great opportunity to continue our efforts in fighting against the genocide in Darfur. So go download and see what you can do.
STAND Summer Action Pack

Peace,

Rachel

China… Why is it always China?

Greetings fellow STANDers! This is Michael Smith. After a very hectic first several weeks of summer, things are settling down somewhat, providing much needed time to reflect. I thought for my first post, I’d briefly look at the elephant in the room: the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

China’s own human rights record is abysmal: no other nation on Earth executes more of its citizens every year (over 3000, though the Chinese government does not keep precise statistics). China’s record with minorities is comtemptible. While China has more than 100 registered ethnicities, over 90% of China’s population is of the Han ethnic group. Much of what is percieved of by the West as Chinese nationalism when it is manifested on a world stage is more clearly seen in an internal context as Han chauvinism. During China’s long 4000-year history, it has contracted and expanded many times, at various points exercising control over non-Han areas such as Tibet, Xinjiang (East Turkestan), Inner Mongolia and Manchuria. In order to solidify the control of the Beijing government over these areas, the government has over the last half-century imported hundreds of thousands of Han families into these areas to change their demographic balance and tie them more closely to China. Any expressions of non-Han ethnic or cultural pride can be capital offenses and are labeled by the Chinese government as “splittism” or violent separatism. The Chinese military and government will tolerate only one supreme authority with absolute power over all the lands they claim, and even demands for autonomy are repressed as harshly as armed insurrections, as was seen in the Tibet crackdown back in March.

In many ways, Han chauvinism has become the ruling ideology of China, with the discrediting of communism. But Han chauvinism is primarily, if not exclusively, a problem for those non-Han minorities unfortunate enough to reside within the borders of the PRC. The guiding principle of the PRC’s foreign policy is resource-acquisition.

The horrors of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in which millions died in an attempt to implement communist principles chastened the generation of leaders who came after Mao. Beginning with Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, Chinese leaders began a transition to a market based economy. The highest virtue under socialism, that of sacrifice for the common good and the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, was abandoned in favor of Deng’s maxim: “To get rich is glorious!” While China today is far from a free market economy, it is also far from its Marxist roots. Where once China’s foreign policy was guided largely by ideology, with China supporting Maoist movements around the world, today its foreign policy is devoid of any principle except Deng’s: to gloriously enrich the state and the state-owned monopolies.

And there lies the crux of the problem: China’s foreign policy is unusually amoral, with the regime having no compunctions about working with the most repressive rulers on Earth to secure ever larger amounts of mineral resources to fuel the Chinese economic modernization and the improvement in living standards of many ordinary Chinese. It is through this lens that we must view Darfur, where the Sudanese government is propped up and shielded from international pressure by Chinese oil contracts. The same holds true for Zimbabwe, where the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe is able to immiserate his subjects, beat and intimidate opposition supporters, rig elections, and convert the breadbasket of Africa into a desert–all with the complete support of the Chinese government which has invested heavily in Zimbabwe’s industries and has sold millions of dollars of military hardware to Mugabe’s regime. Tacit Chinese support for the repressive junta in Burma (styled by that illegitimate clique as “Myanmar”) has kept the regime in power as it continues to repress its citizens, persecute Buddhist monks and pro-democracy activists in the wake of last August’s protests, compel more than 800,000 Burmese into forced labor, and ethnically-cleanse non-Burmese in the country’s mountainous north, not to mention refusing to let international aid workers in to help the hundreds of thousands affected by Cyclone Nargis. A number of other autocratic regimes from Equatorial Guinea to North Korea are also kept in power by the Chinese government.

These are all spokes on a giant wheel: and at the center of it all sits Beijing. This is not an argument for isolating or demonizing China; such a strategy would be a catastrophic and counterproductive folly. Instead, we must see that China is the indispensable actor. We CAN end the genocide in Darfur, and force repressive governments to respect human rights in Burma, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea and other nations–but only if we keep the pressure on China.

Beijing has already shown that it is keenly susceptible to international pressure: in response to international pressure, Chinese President Hu Jintao pointedly avoided Zimbabwe on a trip to Southern Africa in February 2007 in which he visited most of Zimbabwe’s neighbors. This underscores the importance of our divestment drives, which could force a change in the policy of the Chinese government if and only if the costs, both in both money and bad-publicity, of doing business as usual with Khartoum are higher than the benefits to Beijing. The upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing in August will present an unparalleled opportunity for human rights activists to put Beijing’s relationships with odious regimes front and center. This is a topic to which I will return later, but I think it’s important to step back occasionally from the narrow focus on Sudan and Darfur and look at the broader international context. By pressuring the PRC on Darfur, we may be able to improve human rights in Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, and many other nations as well.

For the Voiceless,
Michael

How about some action?

US special envoy to Sudan expresses frustration with UN Secretariat

Wednesday 18 June 2008 08:14.

June 17, 2008 (NEW YORK) – The US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson voiced disappointment at the UN secretariat for failing to move quickly on the deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur.

 

US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson speaking to reporters June 18, 2008

“We find it very disheartening that six months after the transfer from the African Union (AU) to the hybrid UN-AU force that 6,900 African Union troops have been re-hatted. There has only been an addition of 585 new UN peacekeepers” Williamson told reporters at the UN headquarters today.

“The United States and others are engaged in training and equipping African peacekeepers to get to the ground. But we need more forward leaning by the UN secretariat to assist us” he added.

Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of deploying peacekeepers to Darfur and recently appeared to throw the blame on the UN for the delay.

The United Nations has for months been seeking six attack and 18 transport helicopters to support the force. But Williamson told UN chief last March that the UN should not be hung on the issue of helicopters needed by the Darfur force.

“The US has committed $100 million. We are training and equipping African troops in Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania; enough to double the size this year. But as we sit here the UN doesn’t have the capacity to accept them” the US envoy said.

“Even though the budget for UNAMID this calendar year that ends in June is $1.27 billion, less than$300 million has been spent….We must do a better job of spending the existing allocated resources so more troops can get on the ground” he added in a frustrated tone.

Williamson also said that the Sudanese government must allow genetically modified products to enter the country so it can be used to feed the Darfur refugees.

The US official also lashed out at a separate UN peacekeeping mission in Southern Sudan (UNMIS) for failing to intervene in the clashes that broke out in the oil rich region of Abyei.

“We pay a billion dollars a year for UNMIS and they didn’t leave their garrison while 52,000 lives were shattered and nearly a hundred people perished” Williamson said.

“The devastation was complete…..U.N. peacekeepers and UNMIS staff in their garrison were as close as 25 feet away. Sudanese homes were burned to the ground and looting took place, despite the fact that UNMIS has a mission … to intervene to protect innocent people” he added.

Williamson also hinted that the UN Security Council (UNSC) may be looking at modifying the mandate of the peacekeepers in Darfur and the South.

“We should be looking at the existing mandate of UNAMID and UNMIS to get them more active” he said.

Asked about the support of Chadian government to the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Williamson said that the “US is taking a more active role in talking to friends and the Chadian government”

“Some of our friends are taking a more active role to curb mutual destruction going back and forth on that border [Darfur]…the US made its strong views known to the country of Chad and others who may be supporting that rebel movement [JEM[” he said.

The US envoy also said that the UNSC is discussing adding more individuals to the sanctions list.

But Williamson appeared careful not to direct criticism at the Sudanese government. This is the first time he made public remarks since returning from Khartoum after declaring that normalization dialogue with the Sudanese government has been suspended.

DARFUR ACTIVISTS BLAME CHINA

The US envoy was joined by Darfur activists who blamed the UNSC and particularly China for protecting the Sudanese government from sanctions.

“Not imposing consequences for such destruction and obstruction emboldens Khartoum to continue to undermine the security of Sudan and the surrounding region, and encourages other rogue regimes globally to defy the Council’s will” John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration official and Co-Chair of the ENOUGH Project told reporters.

“Since the war erupted in Darfur the Security Council has passed 9 resolutions and issued 19 presidential statements. However not one of these resolutions or statements have been imposed….the time has come to impose consequences” he said.

Prendergast warned Sudan’s closest ally that its economic interests in Sudan may be at risk unless they pressure Khartoum on resolving conflicts in the South and Darfur.

He said that following the clashes in Abyei, the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) who signed a peace deal in 2005, “are getting increasingly concerned that they are going to have to go back to war to fight for their independence referendum that is promised in 2011”.

“If that happens the very first target that the rebels are going to go after are the Chinese oil installations….they [SPLM] have learnt a lot about how to penetrate and undertake commando operations during these last 20 years.”

US actress and Darfur activist Mia Farrow also pointed fingers to China behind the escalating conflict in Darfur.

“I don’t think the government of Sudan could have continued in this way for more than five years without the knowledge that it has the support of a giant….and that giant is China” he said.

China has recently appeared to be toughening its tone with the Sudanese government.

Last week the Chinese president Hu Jintao urged the visiting Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha to settle Darfur crisis by fulfilling its commitments with regard to the deployment of the hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur and to accelerate the peace process with the rebels.

“Sudan should push forward the peacekeeping mission and political process in a balanced manner, quickly restore political negotiations and strive to ensure the talks achieve substantial progress” Jintao was quoted by state media.

Also earlier this week China endorsed a presidential statement urging Sudan to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Last December Beijing blocked attempts to pass a similar statement.

International experts also say more than 300,000 were killed and 2 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur, a region that is roughly the size of France.

(ST)

 

Hello all, here’s an article I found interesting today in the Sudan Tribune. It’s a really good read, you guys should check out www.sudantribune.com for up to date information. China has made some effort, but can do so much more with their leverage in Sudan.

Congratulations

Hey STAND,

Tonight, we received an award for Best New Student Organization on campus!  This is a very prestigious award given once a year at the Student Organization Excellence Awards Banquet.

THANK YOU!  We could never have done it without all of your help.  I want to give a special thank you to people who went above and beyond what we expected.

Michael Smith: always there for the organization.  Your work as treasurer this year was so helpful and I turly appreciate all that you do!

Ben Potter: We’ve pulled a few all nighters together making copies, writing press releases, etc.  I would never have made it through without you.

Others: Scott Koplin, Megan Poole, Brandon Knight, Tara Pressley, Jay Patel, Alex Cruz, Liana Blue, Ashley Reaves, Alyssa Reynolds, Paige Daniels, Sabrina Goins, Angie Niziol, Michael Claiborne, and so, so many others.  You guys are amazing and definitely deserve honorable mention!

The Art of Reversing Digression

Assalamu-laikum STANDers!

This obviously is our new blog! I have been an avid blogger for years, but have used it strictly for personal use, and not for a specific cause with an organization. Some of you may be thinking that I was against doing something like this in the past, and well, you may be right. I have never advocated against the use of blogs in the political arena, but instead have expressed my concern that they are often used as a crutch or an excuse for not actually getting out of your computer chair and taking some kind of action. Although I still believe this to be true, I think this blog will be beneficial to STAND at UNCC.

My aspirations in starting this blog is for it to serve as a source of information if you missed a meeting, news updates, updates on STAND as a national organization(new campaigns, conferences, opportunities), and an outlet for any of YOU to express opinions or thoughts relating to genocide, activism, etc. I feel as if we have somewhat deflated and digressed since our Rock for Darfur concert, and now is the time to pick up steam and move forward. My hope is that through this blog we will all feel more of a sense of community within our organization, which will then lead to a loyalty and a motivation to be an active participant. I do not want to be the only contributor to this blog, as I would love for you guys to join me in this project! It will also give me a chance to post pictures, videos, and other fun stuff. Feel free to give me feedback at any time on my posts.

So jumping right in:

Now is the time for STAND to go through a few changes and transitions. We have been in existence at UNCC for a year now, and I am proud to say that we are one of the most active and successful STAND clubs in NC! But, on the downside, we have had a problem with attendance and participation, which has definitely weakened and demoralized us as of late. Although I know(and am guilty of all the time) life gets to be too much sometimes and it is easy to not follow through with things you really wanted or meant to do, flaking out consistently is really holding us back right now. Christa and myself have high expectations for STAND, and have devoted a large part of our lives to this cause. We want all of you to have the same kind of passion and sacrifice, because STAND will not live on after we leave without out it. My desire this semester is to have a core group of students committed to STAND who are reliable, hard-working, and passionate. There should be elections soon, so LEADERS! Step up to the plate and take the torch from me and Christa for next semester. Rise to the occasion to become a leader of an organization that is part of one of the largest student-led movements in U.S. history! I believe in all of you.

 NEWS AND UPDATES:

Students for a Democratic Society: (SDS) has invited us to join them on March 20th, the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, for a protest on campus. This protest will be non-violent. I would also like to point out this is not an anti-Bush protest, but just an anti-Iraq War protest. Details will be coming soon, but if you’re interested in STAND getting involved in this, comment and let me know! I certainly would like to. :)

Act Out For Darfur: I came to this event sick and in a bad mood, but I really enjoyed it. CHAIN Reaction did a great job, and they had an amazing turn out. We need to get advice from them about networking. The poems, songs, spoken word, dances, and skits from people with a heart for Darfur was really inspiring, even if they were just learning about the conflict. I was greatly encouraged, so if you weren’t there, you missed out!

Die-In: So as was probably my fault on account of throwing up all morning and not bringing the signs for the die-in, we will reschedule soon. They’re now taking up all the room in my backseat, just waiting in anticipation. I’m loving it. haha. I’m hopeful that the die-in will still be a success…I love die-in’s.

See you at the meeting tomorrow folks, 5pm Friday 032!

peace and love,
Rachel